Contact
My main research interest is the evolution of body organisation and the convergent evolution of similar morphological structures. Extinct organisms, in the form of fossils, offer insights into morphologies no longer represented in the modern fauna, and often provide “evolutionary steps in between”. With this, the character evolution in different evolutionary lineages can be reconstructed with smallest steps, resulting in finely graded evolutionary scenarios.
For investigating morphological structures, we use state-of-the-art imaging methods, such as high-resolution macro-photography or digital microscopy. The resulting images provide the basis for quantitative comparisons of morphologies with different methods of geometric morphometrics. In this way, large-scale quantitative comparisons of evolutionary changes through time are possible, which provide important insights into changes of biodiversity over several hundred million years.
For more information on Carolin's research please click here: https://www.palaeo-evo-devo.info/